Are wii development costs really cheaper?

[NJ5]

Pristine20 said:

NJ5 said:

WereKitten said:

^Disgaea 3? Also the upcoming "Mars" RPG will cost $3M. Even with its Phyre engine coming for free from Sony, I bet its low cost means that it won't have great assets.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. I doubt they'd have great results in many genres though, especially FPS, driving and action games. It will probably remain the exception rather than the rule, especially with competition from first party games which invest a lot in graphics.

@Pristine20: I never said the PS3/360 per se are to blame, they're just the culmination of a problem which has been going on for quite a while... The problem is that costs have been rising faster than revenue, and now we're finally at the breaking point where even many of the biggest publishers can't cope. Somehow this problem has to be solved.

 

If devs have the idea that such genres only sell great with extreme graphics, why not focus on others. We don't even have proof that this is the case because in many of these cases, low end graphics usually equals low production values all round. i still play old ps2/ps1 games and I'd be the first to tell you that great games are just that...great games. Some are improved as graphics improve but extreme HD killzone 2 style is unnecessay.

It's nice to not have to see blocky hands like cloud's in FFvii but I don't think anyone would complain if smaller studios stayed at FFX graphic levels (whioch are detailed enough even today) if their games are as great as it was.

In my eyes, the solution is simple: make what you can afford. If your game is good, non-killzone 2 graphics won't kill sales.

 

I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's because it's what sells these days... and also because most developers aren't innovative enough.

Your solution could work, but not in a market where the biggest (and often only) innovation most developers have to offer in a new iteration of a franchise is the better graphics. This of course exacerbated by reviewers (who will surely point out that the graphics are antiquated, not to say unacceptable), and perhaps the demographics involved.

I suspect this debate is largely academic though, because I really don't see many publishers going back in terms of graphics on the PS3 and 360.